The Barred Owl's range is expanding west, now all the
way to the north-west coast of North America, where it is slowly displacing its slightly smaller cousin, the Spotted Owl. Here you will find photos, recordings and a brief field notes
section to help identify and enjoy this beautiful owl. A more in depth write up
and range map can be found in its natural history page (the Biology link). To jump immediately to any of these sections
use the Page Jump Links below.

This is the territorial call (male). Both male and female give this
call. The female's voice is a higher pitch.

Male and female territorial calls. This set begins with the lower pitch
male call and then is joined by the higher pitch female.

This set is both a male and female calling. The beginning of the set is
dominated by a female's territorial challenge call.

FIELD NOTESBarred Owl -
Strix varia

The
Barred Owl is similar in appearance only to the Spotted Owl and is
unlikely to be confused with any other owl. There are some distinct
differences that make these two owls distinguishable though. The most
visual distinction is that the Barred Owl has brown vertical streaks on
its underside where the Spotted Owl has short brown horizontal bars (and
spots on its crown). The Barred Owl also has a distinctive sharp
break between its vertical chest and flank streaks and lateral throat
barring. It is also a lighter brown color overall and slightly
larger (if they happen to be sitting next to each other this is quite
noticeable!). Both owls do have bold calls in the forests but they are
different. The primary
territorial location or advertisement call for the Barred Owl is
often described as "Who cooks for you; Who cooks for you all?"
or "You cook today; I cook tomorrow" (most noticeable is
tone and pattern since the two owls have many variations). The eyes of both (Spotted and
Barred) owls are dark brown to black, the bills are horn to yellowish in
color and they lack ear tufts. The sexes are alike in appearance
although males and females can be distinguished by call. The length of
the Barred Owl is 21" (slightly shorter in length than a Red-tailed Hawk).